In 1940, the BBC approached Thomas Mann to express his anti-Nazi stance through a series of radio addresses. Recorded during his exile in California, the broadcasts were transmitted to Germany via radio. Echoing his gesture, the project weaves together present-day reflections from cultural exiles - artists from Russia, Israel, Hungary, and Turkey, who have left their homelands due to profound moral and political conflicts with the local governments. These contemporary voices are met with an excerpt from Mann’s original broadcasts. Forming a multi- generational dialogue on censorship, identity, and resistance.

 

The video work was filmed at Grimeton, Sweden’s first radio station and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Images of its transmission infrastructure and surrounding landscapes are paired with contemporary exile testimonies, highlighting the tension between human experience and the neutrality of technology. One segment, filmed at the station’s amateur radio shed, reflects on Amir’s own exile - where the highly structured protocols and coded language of amateur radio serve as a metaphor for the challenges of expressing complex, personal truths across distance and cultures.

 

*The title is a quote from Thomas Mann’s Listen, Germany! 1940

**The work was commissioned and produced in the framework of a residency in Art Inside Out, Halland, Sweden